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Fresh Cherry Shortbread Bars

August 12, 2018

What I love most about our seasons is the delicious in season fruit and veg that comes with it to be eaten at its best at that time. In summer this means the abundance of cherries. I remember going to the greengrocers when I was little with my mom and coming out with a brown paper bag filled with deep ruby cherries that were lip smackingly sweet.

My boys love cherries too, which is fab being as 100g contains 25% RDA of Vitamin C for them! we often sit and enjoy them by the bowlful whilst watching a film, ending with us being covered in cherry juice and lots of cherry pits to hopefully grow in the garden.

That being said, as much as I enjoy eating them in there basic freshness straight off the stalk, I do like to venture out and bake with them to keep things interesting and varied. Something I make a lot of for the boys is shortbread, I can easily change it to dairy free for Dexter, full butter for a homemade gifts or adding lavender, chocolate or orange zest to liven things up bit.

This is my recipe for Fresh Cherry shortbread bars, I’m using my usual shortbread recipe but feel free to use which ever you like.

Ingredients

200g fresh cherries

125g dairy free spread (or butter if you prefer)

50g caster sugar

180g plain flour

small amount of icing sugar

method

1) preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius

2) cream together butter and sugar

3) rub in flour till it resembles sand and starts to come together and form a dough

4) roll out to about 1cm thick and pop into a non stick baking pan, I used a round one but any shape will do. Leave over a small amount of dough to add to the top of the cherries. Prick with a fork

5) destone the cherries and halve. Sprinkle over icing sugar to gently coat and absorb some of the juice when baking.

6) press cherries into the dough and as the remainder of the leftover do so it resembles a sort of crumble.

7) bake until golden and the cherry juice is just starting to seep through. Cut into bars when cool.

These bars are perfect for picnics or out and about, the cherries stay wonderfully juicy but still hold really well within the bars. Enjoy!

This post is an entry for the BritMums #lovefreshcherries Challenge, sponsored by Love Fresh Cherries (instagram: @LoveFreshCherries).